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The Channels Energy Plan Details Blowin’ in the Wind

Creating renewable energy is one of many facets of The Channels project that energizes backers of the proposed $788 million Arkansas River development.“The renewables give us the opportunity to kick in some cash,” said Hal Salisbury of the Tulsa Stakeholders Inc., the non-profit group proposing The Channels.The Channels will receive operating funds from the profits generated by renewable energy sources — wind, solar and hydroelectric. Through the sale of energy, an additional $88 million dollars can be financed to help defray the $788 million cost.Specifics are up for discussion, TSI said.Rusty Patton, one of the original TSI members, agrees.The proposal offers two potential uses for the generated power.“We will be able to offload power to the grid,” Patton said, or “the beauty from an engineering point of view is that we will be able to generate, store and sell the power right there.” There is a market for the energy, Salisbury said. “There is a federal mandate, the utility has to take it. It is ‘green energy,’ there is a helluva lot more demand than supply.”However, officials with Tulsa’s electric utility, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, have taken a wait-and-see attitude, according to Stan Whiteford, spokesman.“We have had general conversations about the project, and we are interested,” he said.PSO officials are not sure what, if any, wind power generated would qualify under federal guidelines. Those rules would require the utility to purchase electricity.“We do not know what to expect yet,” Whiteford said. “There is a long way to go before we have any feel about the project. There are a million details yet to discussed.”Seems like there are 788 million ideas need to be discussed.